Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Cottage Laundry Room Makeover

It has been forever since I have made a post, not because I haven't wanted to, but life has just been so busy. We have been working tirelessly on our home to make improvements and to make it guest worthy. My cousin and her family came to visit and before they arrived, a fresh look throughout my house was my goal.This post however is in regards to my laundry room. When we first moved in I painted the beadboard in white which I liked, but at the time I was on a brown/blue kick and since those are not colors I normally used in my home, I thought the laundry room would be a great place for them. I never really liked the finished products, but other projects always took priority until now.

As you can see from the first 2 photos my laundry was a mess, however it did not always look like this. I failed to take "normal" photos of the room and only thought of it after I had already started moving things around. I had tried painting the ceiling when we first moved in, but the paper on the ceiling was old and so it started to peel and of course I just left it for "another day". Also the light broke when my husband walked right under it and I never replaced that either.

I like brown and blue, but it made this room too dark.

This is the other side of the room that we stored food on wire shelves and a small drawer freezer.

After clearing the room, I started by painting everything white-my favorite color!

More white paint-thankfully the weather was fabulous, so I could leave the window open for ventilation. Here is Scott starting to grout tile.

In between my painting, Scott regrouted the floors. The tile was still in great shape, so we save no need on spending the additional money for new tiles-but now it has a lightly, fresher look.Instead of putting in an expensive ceiling, we bought foam squares that just glued to the ceiling-cheap, easy and nice fix. I also replaced the old light with a chandelier that I had stored in my closet. I have been replacing "cheaper" Ikea lights with ones that I pick up at flea markets so this light was one that had been replaced by an antique on in my dining room.

Instead of keeping the room all white, I painted inside the frames that I had in the old laundry room a warm sage color.More sageThe previous owners did put up this "European beadboard", however there was always this 1.5" ledge all the way around, so we used 14" (not sure the exact size) wide boards all the way around the room for a decorating ledge. We just mounted them with brackets every few feet for stability. I also reused the same brown shelves that I had previously to display all my black toile trays that I have collected over the years.

The finished room. I was still able to display all my vintage laundry wares, such as an old washboard and sewing spools. I also searched many months to find glass jars for my powder detergent. Once I found in France for 6 euros (the large one) and the other in Tongeren, Belgium for 10 euros.

I also collect old apothecary/pharmacy jars, so I figured this ledge was a great place to display them.

I added a light for evening "work", I just like the glow it leaves!

One of my favorite things in my laundry room are those 2 jars of buttons. They were my grandmothers and I remember sitting for hours at her kitchen table just looking through them.

I still have work to do on the window side of the room, however I thought this was a great place to display this very old and heavy, green stained glass window that I picked up in France for 10 euros!

My old glass detergent jars, also the box that holds my yummy fabric softener was a gift from a friend. She found it for free, but to me it is priceless.

We moved our refrigerator into our work room to give us more storage space. I wish I had more time to find a vintage cupboard, but this one serves the purpose and make a wonderful cabinet for dry food storage. I also need to finish above the window, but all in due time!

We also purchased cabinets and a countertop for the other side of the room. I can now store all paper goods easily. I hope to get cabinets above real soon and use the countertop as a sewing area.

I wish I had a great way to hide the pipes, but for now, painting them sage kind or hides them.

Well there you have it, my remade laundry room. Aside from a few more storage cabinets and a window treatment, my cottage laundry room is complete and I actually enjoy doing laundry. I find myself putting away the clothes a lot soon b/c I don't want to see baskets just sitting around filled to the top. I hope you enjoyed my little tour!!

3 comments:

I enjoyed the tour. It was a clean (get it? laundry) break from my research articles for a few minutes. I like the two large glass jars too. Two is the right number. I like how the other ones are not the same kind of clear glass. It gives a variety.

I can't think of a way to hide those pipes. Well, what about a shelf right below the pipes and choosing the right sized and weighted objects to "hide" the pipes. That way you're not building over them, you're just nicely hiding them.

Oh yeah, you'll be seeing Mom and Dad in a couple days. Tell them hello.